Many countries around the world are in a unique position in human history: rather than having a constant or growing population, their populations are starting to shrink. This is not a temporary decline, caused by war or famine. There are plenty of population shocks like that in the history books.
Instead, this decline is structural. It is caused by falling birth rates.
If we look at the United Nations’ population estimates and medium projections, 64 countries and territories had already passed peak population in 2026…
Source: Our World in Data – A project of Global Change Data Lab
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